A packed crowd watched Alabama-Auburn today at the SEC Tournament, creating traffic problems for the city of Hoover. (Mark Almond / The Birmingham News)

Fans stuck in traffic who didn't attend the Alabama-Auburn baseball game this morning can use their tickets for any other SEC Tournament session, the Alabama Sports Foundation announced this afternoon.

Anyone who had general admission or reserved tickets that weren't torn can use them for another session this week. Heavy traffic left many reserved seats empty when the Alabama-Auburn game started, and fans were still trickling in as late as the seventh inning.

"Our biggest challenge today was school was in session at Hoover High School and Trace Crossings Elementary School," said Gene Hallman, CEO of the Alabama Sports Foundation, which organizes the tournament on behalf of Hoover. "A decent portion of traffic coming in was school traffic. Combine the fact we weren't able to park at the high school, which is an ideal situation, and it created a bigger backup than we're comfortable with."

Hallman said he doesn't believe there were many people who gave up and went home. Traffic was backed up for several miles on Interstate 459, causing some people to move only a mile-and-half in a 90-minute period.

"We were not happy that people were arriving in the fifth or sixth inning of the game, but I don't think there was much more we could have done to expedite that," Hallman said.

Regions Park opened 30 minutes earlier than usual, at 8 a.m., for the 9:30 game. In hindsight, Hallman said the stadium would have been opened two hours before the first pitch and a more active approach could have been taken to tell fans to leave early.

"We will certainly sit down with the conference and Hoover police and make some adjustments, probably some minor adjustments," Hallman said. "I guess you do more promoting people to come early. If it's Ole Miss vs. Alabama tomorrow, you better leave two hours before game time."

Today and Thursday are the last school days for the Hoover school system, and both are half-days. Hallman said for next year he wants to encourage the Hoover school board to adjust the school calendar so the year ends before the SEC Tournament starts.

"I don't think it's an inconvenience to the school, but if it is, I'll back off," Hallman said. "This may not happen again for another 20 years. But hey, it wasn't fun for the students and teachers, either."

No actual single-game attendance will be provided because the SEC counts session attendance, meaning anyone who attended either of today's first two games. The SEC announced the Session 1 attendance at 12,514, the fifth-largest session attendance in tournament history.

Hallman said more cars were parked today during the Alabama-Auburn game than any time in tournament history, including the 1999 championship game between Alabama and Arkansas. The SEC lists the '99 crowd at 16,165. For the first time, the SEC Tournament sold out all 3,728 reserved seats at Regions Park for the entire tournament.